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As disappointed as he was with the U.S. election results, Thomas Peterffy still hopes the next government will find a satisfactory way to resolve the fiscal cliff of looming tax hikes and big spending cuts. "I doubt they will," he says, "but I hope they will."

You've seen those ads. "America's wealth comes from the efforts of people striving for success. Take away their incentive by bad-mouthing success, and you take away the wealth," he told the camera, in between black-and-white footage of people in food lines. "Yes, in socialism, the rich will be poorer, but the poor will also be poorer."

He concluded by saying that was why he was voting Republican and putting the ads on TV.

Peterffy's own life is the stuff of legend on Wall Street. Born in 1944 in the basement of a Budapest hospital during a Russian air strike, he emigrated to the U.S. at 21 and started trading commodities. Today his Greenwich, Conn., firm makes markets in more than 400,000 securities and provides brokerage services in 19 countries.

When pressed, Peterffy admits to being a fiscal conservative but social liberal. He says he's unhappy with President Obama's victory and the GOP's loss of key Senate seats. But he says he was "more upset with the extreme right than the extreme left" for alienating America's centrist voters.

Peterffy would stand to gain plenty if Interactive Brokers declares a special dividend soon, as some analysts suggest it will. According to recent regulatory filings, he controls the company through special Class B shares with almost 90% voting power. Interactive last paid a special dividend of about $1 billion before taxes, or $1.79 a share, in late 2010. Then, as now, tax rates on dividends were expected to rise. In addition, the firm is sitting on more than $5 billion of capital, and return on capital has fallen below 10%.

Peterffy says he doesn't regret spending big bucks on Republican campaigns. "It brought a crucial issue to light and made many people think about the potential downside of this transformation the president is talking about," he says.

Peterffy says he has no plans to run for office. "I want to join a group that can create a political force for economic freedom—but also for freedom of choice and that is pro-environment," he says.

He would also like to work toward determining a "practical tax rate"—one that would deliver sufficient revenue and that most Americans would consider fair.